8.3
I don’t care what anybody says. An artist’s/band’s sophomore LP is always the most important work in the artist’s/band’s career. It shows the development of the band; whether or not they evolve their sound, grow musically, or maybe stick to the same thing that made them bad or good in the first place. It all depends. Here we have a classic cause of a much anticipated sophomore effort from a very prominent, fairly new indie band. They’re called Fleet Foxes. Their self titled debut wasn’t the most ground break thing I’ve listened to, but it had some real awe-inspiring moments, like the haunting and atmospheric choral “White Winter Hymnal” and the ear warming vocals of “Quiet Houses”.
Whether or not you loved or hated Fleet Foxes, you had to admit they were something special and fresh in the music community. With the much anticipation of their next work Helplessness Blues, comes so many doubts and worries for any Fleet Foxes fan. What could they possibly expand on next? Are they capable of making another successful, pleasing record? I’ll tell you I believed they did.
Kicking off way before the initial release of Helplessness, comes the title track, “Helplessness Blues”. It’s a wonderful rendition of a classic/soft rock from the ‘70s with more modern twangs hidden in. The Who really come in mind when listening to the title track, the beginning acoustic intro with the defining line of “I’d rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something greater beyond me”, the absence of a complete Who reference is the lack of maniac drum work that Keith Moon created for The Who. It’s really a very exhilarating track and that will surely get any F-Foxes fan excited for Helplessness Blues. How did the rest of the LP shape up?
There is definitely an expansion of sound and maturity. The songs are set up more traditionally and more linear as opposed to the spacey, folk-driven power that made their debut so distinct. There aren’t really any powerful silent “barbershop” stylized vocals that infested their debut, except for the intro to “The Plains/Bitter Dancer”. Instead it a lot of solo vocal work from Robin Pecknold, which I should mention isn’t necessarily bad since Pecknold as improved his vocalization immensely from their debut. He has a acoustic play around track all to himself, “Blue Spotted Trail”, and he does an excellent job playing with just his acoustic and singing about random topics: “Why is life made only for to end?”
That nice little acoustic tune leads up into the big epic, exciting finale “Grown Ocean”. “Grown Ocean” probably combines everything that makes Fleet Foxes exciting and enjoyable to listen to. The booming drums, underlying layers of electric guitars and acoustic strums, gorgeous ethereal vocal work and all the new elements that Fleet Foxes have added into their repertoire.
Helplessness has absolutely, fresh, moving tracks like the title track and “Grown Ocean” and it has sub-par tracks that aren’t necessarily terrible tracks, just suck away the energy of the album. These tracks are “Lorelai” and “Someone You’d Admire”. This shame problem brings down their debut for me as well. Killer tracks mixed with mediocre tracks. I love the exciting, upbeat energy that Fleet Foxes brings on a lot of their highlights, but said mentioned tracks just drag the whole album experience down for me.
To me, an album that really knocks me out is one that I continuously come back to. Helplessness Blues doesn’t do that for me, it’s still very enjoyable for the first couple of times, but after that it really is a hit and miss. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll come back and listen to the title track and “Grown Ocean”, but bizarre moments like the avant-garde saxophone squawking towards the end on “The Shrine/An Argument” make me shy away from the album entirely. Essentially, Fleet Foxes have made a better album then the previous, but haven’t blown me away as an entire album. Yet…
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